Thursday, December 13, 2012

Okay, I think this is the last of the catch-up posts...until I have a baby and need to update with that news!

Scott's sister Rachel came to Nashville for a visit over the Thanksgiving break. It was so much fun to have our first visitor and Ellie was so excited. We started by tracking Aunt Rachel's flight online and watched her plane move across each state little by little.

We had so much fun all week. Apparently too much fun because this is the only picture I took the whole time and it's blurry and dark. I cooked my first Thanksgiving for the four of us and our two missionaries. Everything actually turned out really well (except the rolls I bought from a bakery which were a huge disappointment.) Ellie had quite a few meltdowns after Rachel left. "I miss my aunt so much!" It breaks my heart to hear her say that and see her sad little face. I miss her, too, Ellie.

Dwight, our Elf on the Shelf, made it back to us and Ellie LOVES him. He's not as busy as other people's elves. He doesn't bake cookies or hang out with Barbies. But he keeps an eye on Ellie, reports to Santa, and finds a new place to land each night (most of the time. Sometimes Mom forgets to remind him to move and he lands in the same place a few days in a row.)

Ellie helped me get out all the baby gear and test it out for baby sister. She is the best helper.

Ellie used the back of Scott's old poster assignment to draw her people. I love her drawings so much. I really can't get enough of the noses with nostrils that look like pig snouts, the overly long fingers, and the recent addition of eyebrows and eyelashes.

She looked so grown up one morning before church I made her take some pictures. She posed by our little Christmas tree (which she loves - she rearranges the ornaments and is SO PROUD of the star on top that she picked out).

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Apparently there are turtles in Tennessee. Ellie and I were on our way to the park one morning and this guy was right in the middle of the road in our apartment complex. I stopped the car, unbuckled Ellie from her carseat, and was so excited to show Ellie our little turtle friend. He looked just like the turtle my brother had growing up and I thought she would love him.

Wrong. She was terrified. She wouldn't even stand by him because "it was gonna get me." So, I don't have a picture of her with the turtle...just a little snapshot of Speedy Spike II.

Luckily, after the Utah Extravaganza, we had some fun things coming up. Without Disney on Ice and General Conference to look forward to, Ellie would have been hard to console.

We had so much fun at Disney on Ice. Ellie still talks about seeing Mickey and Goofy's car breaking and needing the other Cars to fix it. She has become so into Toy Story and Tinkerbell. It was fantastic.

She had the most adorable expression throughout the whole thing. Total fascination and over-the-top happiness. I can't wait until we make it to Disneyland.

General Conference was a huge hit. Ellie was adorable through the whole thing. In the couple of weeks leading up to Conference, Ellie played a match game with pictures of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Between that and a song using their last names to the tune of the "Ten Little Indians", Ellie knows them all. It's way too cute.

Oh, and this is Daddy and Ellie playing baseball. Ellie is the pitcher and Scott is batting. Ellie would cheer when "Daddy didn't his the blinds this time! Yea!" Good work, Scott.

Seriously, this kid is just the best. So sweet.

Ellie and I went on a walk around our apartment complex and explored a little bit. She just gets prettier all the time. And that hill behind her, was on fire with different shades of orange, yellow, and red. Fall in Tennessee has been wonderful.

Our play group ended up at a local farm one day and we had lots of fun.

There were goats, cows, chickens, donkeys, and pigs.

Ellie loved "milking the cow." It only squirted water, but she loved it so much she didn't want to leave to move on to the next activity.

Same thing happened in the corn pit. She wanted to play and play and play and never leave.

Scott was trying to study and Ellie kept climbing all over him. Finally, they compromised with this setup. She could watch a show while she was comfy on top of him. He could study on the floor. He's a good dad.

We finally got this patient girl her very own "big girl bed." She has been asking about it for weeks, but between the move, and starting school, and getting settled, and then going out of town for two weeks I just kept putting it off. Finally Scott had a free Saturday and we went to get it.

She couldn't have been happier and hasn't really had any problems with staying in her bed. She is the queen of stalling when it comes to bedtime, but once she's in there, she does pretty good of staying in. She only fell out the first night and ended up in bed with us. After that, I blocked her in using the pack-n-play for a couple of weeks and now she's good to go.

We killed some time doing a craft. Ellie is very into art these days and painting is high on her list of things she loves. So, we painted a box and the tree trunk (paper towel roll). Then she got to glue on little leaves I cut out. She was all over that glue stick. So funny. But she hated when glue got on her fingers. She hates when anything gets on her fingers. She runs to the bathroom sink to wash her hands without being asked to all the time.

She got spoiled by Nana with a Halloween surprise.

There were even some stickers in the envelope. Ellie sure is lucky.

So is Daddy. Hahaha.

Halloween was interesting. We had our ward Halloween party a few days before, and Ellie wore her bee costume. She was so cute...but Halloween is definitely not Ellie's favorite holiday. She was terrified by all the costumes, confused by the green teeth, and didn't want to talk to anyone by trick-or-treating. One person in our ward gave her a piece of candy (without Ellie talking at all) and that was it. Ellie was DONE.

On the actual day of Halloween, she wanted to wear her bee costume again to go visit Scott at work. She looked adorable again, but this picture was taken after we got home. She wanted nothing to do with his coworkers, their costumes, or even their candy. She'd take it if they dropped it in her bucket, but she wasn't about to bother saying trick-or-treat. I think the costumes freaked her out.

I was so excited to take her trick-or-treating that night. She's been talking about being Ariel for months (a costume from her cousins) but she refused to get dressed and go. The only festive thing I could get her to do was paint a pumpkin and wear an orange shirt. Bah humbug.

And our sad excuse for carving pumpkins is proof that Ellie has no chance at being artistic. Sorry babe.

Ellie loves these scarecrows. They're friends, according to Ellie. She named one Scare and one Crow. Clever, no? Here she is reading Green Eggs and Ham to them. A very animated reading, I guess.

Again, we have Ellie wanting to climb all over Scott and Scott needing to study. Luckily, they compromised again. They both got comfortable, Scott got to study a little bit, and they watched some football together. The best Saturday combination.

We found another carousel. The only reason I put these pictures up is because in the second one she's saying "Yeehaw!" and lassoing. That was all on her own. Too funny.

Ellie does this when I use the bathroom. So much for privacy. Haha. "Mom, can you see my hands? Can you see one hand? Can you see two hands?" I guess it comes with being a mom, though, right?

Scott built lots of forts for Ellie.

And she wore herself out. She climbed into our bed with Scott's phone one night and fell asleep playing games. We sure like this girl. Can't wait for her sister to come soon!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Exactly seven days after we moved to Nashville, I bought plane tickets for me and Ellie to go back to Utah. I wasn't exactly homesick, but having that to look forward to made settling in to our new place a lot easier. It was nice knowing that in a few weeks, we'd get to go back to what was comfortable and see all our family again. Scott had to stay to go to school and work, but Ellie and I had zero responsibilities (no school, work, or callings) so it was perfect. Scott teased me for a while that I couldn't even get through an entire week without booking a flight home, but the price was right (thank you Southwest for your 2-for-1 deal).

We made a huge paper chain and hung it up in our living room. Each night, Ellie got to tear one off, and finally we made it to the last one the night before we left. Ellie was SO excited.

Ellie was the greatest travel buddy ever and even insisted on pulling my carry-on around the airport. It was pretty adorable.

She couldn't have been easier on the flight. She was all smiles and pleasant conversation.

She watched Doc McStuffins, ate snacks, did puzzles, and was absolutely perfect.

And then Grandma and Papa picked us up from the airport! Grandma stayed with the car so Papa could help with our bags. This little girl sure was excited to see her Papa.

Love this picture of those two.

I have two more videos of happy reunions...but the one with Grandma is just crying and the one with her cousins is just screaming. It was so fun to be back.While we were in Utah, we went shopping (and Ellie rode horses)

We went to visit Aunt Rachel at work and Ellie had another dental checkup.

She let Emily clean her teeth but wasn't so sure about letting the dentist count her teeth. What's funny though, is that even after her mini-meltdown, for weeks she tried to compare Dr. Chamberlain to Dr. Seuss. I guess it was at least a good memory? We shopped some more...which mean more rides for Ellie.

Ellie had fun "telling Grandma secrets."

Then we were lucky enough to go to St. George for a little while, too. We got to eat yummy Nielsen's Frozen Custard.

We got to spend some time with Nana.

And Ellie "helped" Grandma clean the patio furniture which was a huge hit.

Ellie found a boyfriend and was really funny with this mannequin. She loved holding his hand.

Ellie's obsession with checkups (thanks to Doc McStuffins) reached a new low when we were all so tired of being her patients that she resorted to helping Grandma's Halloween decorations. This poor guy kept losing his arm but his heart always sounded great.

And then we had to come home. It was sad, but we missed Scott.Our flight home was not as easy as the first one. There were a few moments where Ellie softly sobbed that she missed Grandma and her cousins and Nana and Uncle Matt and everybody. It was so sad. Luckily, she still looked like this for most of the trip home.

Phew! That trip was so wonderful, but too much fun. I'm exhausted just looking back at all the pictures!